There are two kinds of people in the world: people who are team pandoro, and people who are team panettone—the tall, star-shaped cake vs or the rounded, densely-packed confection, both of which are synonymous with Christmas celebrations. Similar, but so different; we break down the fundamentals of these two iconic bread-like cakes as we embrace the festive season.

Pandoro

Pandoro—a literal translation to “golden bread”—hails from the city of Verona in Northern Italy. It was patented by confectioner Domenico Melegatti at the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce of the Kingdom of Italy in 1884, inspired by the Veronese desert Levà that is made on Christmas Eve night, but the exact origin of the cake is not entirely clear. In any case, the cake’s popularity soared from there.